Kilimanjaro Lemosho Route Day 3 - Shira to Barranco
This was the hardest day apart from Day 6 (when we reached the summit). It started with white frost on the grass and the edges of the tents when we emerged into the early morning sunlight. It was 8.30 by the time we were ready to leave after lining up for another group photo, and we followed the same route that some of us had taken the previous afternoon.
The Shira Plateau is a vast open space surrounded by a broken line of hills, some of them more jagged than others, which arae the remnants of a vast volcanic cone which collapsed in on itself. One side is overlooked by the highest peak, Kibo. It's a bit like Las Canadas overlooked by Mt Teide.
Another similarity to El Teide was the enormous dark round boulders that were scattered around, and I thought at first they might have been formed the same way. Those on El Teide (Los Huevos - "eggs") were formed like snowballs, rolling down the side of the mountain through thick molten lava before coming to rest on a flat area. However someone pointed out that there was no mountainside close enough to these ones, so they must have been thrown up by a massive volcanic explosion and survived the impact.
The vegetation is moorland, rather like Scotland but drier, stretching for miles across to the peaks around the perimeter. At first we passed only low heathers growing out of clumps, or stumps, of blackened wood, indicating there must have been a big scrub fire a few years ago. By the time we had our first hourly break we were passing through bigger heathers up to 2m high, and a bit further on as we started climbing gently we were surrounded by heathers reaching around 4m (about 13 feet)!
All the time we could see the massive square bulk of Kibo ahead of us, slowly getting closer. It was clear and sunny, but although it wasn't too warm we needed hats to protect us. We were moving at a steady pace and beginning to climb out of the basin, suddenly going up more steeply across a hard band of volcanic rock. The porters passed us at this point, a line of them silhouetted against the sky, and then I caught a good photo of the rest of our group climbing up across the rock with the plateau behind them.
We were beginning to notice the thin air, making it more of an effort to climb the slope, so we were ready for our second break on a rocky knoll. This had once been a campsite apparently, but was no longer used. One of the guides, Nemis, produced flasks of hot soup and cups, and instantly became our hero.
We had a long rest here, presumably so we could recover properly before the long climb ahead of us, although we were getting restless to move sooner. It was a great spot to enjoy the view across the plateau below us with the hills around the rim clearly visible. Away in the distance we could make out another shape highlighted by a puff of white cloud - Mount Meru, near Arusha, where we had stayed a couple of days earlier.
In the other direction was an unusual sight (at least for us) - a tall tree with a broad trunk, a bit like a palm tree. It was the first of the giant senecio trees we had seen. There were more in the gully beyond it, and we would see many more at the end of the day's walk. Naiman explained that they stored water in these trunks to withstand the conditions in the dry season. Once we started moving again the path went down to the water course which passed the tree and Cedric stopped to replace the yukky tasting iodine treated water with the clearer water in the stream. This would have supplied the old camp site.
(If this site HAD been in use, it might have been a better place to stop at the end of the 2nd day, balancing up the time and effort involved walking on the 2nd and 3rd days).
Now the hard work really began, on a relentless slope of volcanic gravel and stones with much less vegetation in evidence. We had left the moorland zone behind. There were still lots of the "perpetual flowers" - low-growing plants with what looked like displays of white flowers which turned out to be the dried out husks of flowers, shining in the sunlight, plus some other unusual alpines which would look great in the rockery at home! Along with a few of these boulders if you could somehow transport them back.
We had to concentrate on the climb, now a slow trudge, well above 4000m on the south-western side of Kibo itself. The next break was half-way up this slope, with an even clearer view of Mt Meru above the clouds.
And then trudging higher. Clouds had gathered above us over Kibo and the temperature had dropped, reduced further due to the altitude. Plus, we were moving more slowly and not generating a lot of bodily heat. By the time of the next stop we were beginning to spread out a bit. Dan was dropping behind and spent the break trying to catch a bit of sleep. At the stop after that he was struggling, and seriously chilled, so he borrowed some extra layers from other members of the group to keep him warm. We were ready for something to eat by then and dug into the packed lunch boxed that we'd been given before we set out.
The next stretch was really tough, as we were tired and cold and feeling the effects of altitude. We were approaching 4500m, getting on for 14,000 ft, so the air was seriously thin, and several of us could feel headaches coming on. The climbing was less steep now but it was hard to keep going. Dan in particular needed quite a bit of encouragement and some extra stops to recover his breath and gather some energy to continue. They do say that the effects of altitude affect people randomly and this showed it.
Around us we noticed some strange pedestal rocks where more resistant lava was being exposed as the softer material below was eroded away. Many of them were adorned with long strands of orange lichen.
On this broad barren shoulder of the mountain we went down and then up, and then down and up again. We reached a junction with a path coming from the left - this was the circular route round to the north via the Moir Hut. As we approached the junction, a woman who looked like she was from East Asia was being escorted back, past us, by a guide. She might have been beaten by the altitude and would probably be taken the shortest route down, the Shira route, to where a rescue vehicle could drive up onto the plateau.
Soon after this we joined the Machame Route, which came up along a rocky ridge from the right. From now on we would be sharing the path with people from two other routes, although we still only saw other groups occasionallly. No-one was moving fast enought to do much overtaking!
At last we were at the highest point on this section, 4500m, and one of the guides pointed to a large brown rocky tower away to the left. This was the Lava Tower, one of the main landmarks for trekkers on Kibo. The more technical Western Breach route to the summit goes past it before climbing up between the crags to the summit glaciers just east of Uhuru Peak. Our route would require another three days' trekking, taking us away round to the south-eastern side to make our summit attempt.
Now we were starting to descend. There was one high valley to go down into, with a gentle climb out on the other side (but it didn't feel gentle!). Then we could see down towards the Barranco Valley and we knew there was no more climbing. It was a slippery path on loose dusty stones and gravel so we had to take care, making us of the walking poles.
A massive band of brown volcanic rock formed the far side of the valley, and across the lower slopes were more senecio trees and giant lobelias. As we descended we could see in the distance the zig-zag line of the path going up the Barranco Wall. It didn't look as threatening as we had been led to expect, but we still thought there must be some difficult sections that we couldn't make out from this angle.
It was a long route down, as we had to get below 4000m again. The track held to the hillside before eventually dropping steeply down as this valley joined the Great Barranco Valley. Below us, a few other walkers were exploring the gorge at the bottom. We reached the wider track in the floor of the valley and followed it through a large clump of senecios to the large campsite on the other side. There were plenty of tents here, spread out over a wide rocky platform projecting out above the valley falling away to the south. Our tents were already in place, close to the stony edge.
It was quite a relief to stop walking after over 9 hours' walking at high altitude. We didn't have long to get cleaned up and changed before the sun set and it became very cold again. There was much discussion about headaches and whether or not we should be using Diamox. Naiman decided Dan should take it, and I had made my mind up as well. I'd brought the tablets and I'd felt my head aching, so I was concerned enough to start taking half a tablet that evening and continued twice a day until the final climb to the top. The others didn't take any at this stage (nor, indeed, later on).
The other difficulty was Pete's blistered ankles, which looked red and sore now and needed some first aid. It wasn't easy to see how he would manage to keep walking for the next four days with his feet in this condition already. The trek had become a more serious affair by the end of the third day.
On the positive side, the clouds cleared again just before sunset to give us a view of the sheer southern face of Kibo, looking up to the Western Breach. And we had another good meal before getting an early night, wondering what the next day had in store for us.
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